A few days ago during a pretty hard rain, I discovered a cardboard box sitting outside my gate. I didn’t put the box there, apprehensively as I approached it. I was praying that if there were kittens inside that they were okay. Thankfully, the box was not sealed. The box, although sopping wet was empty.
The next morning when I was feeding, I noticed four black kitties watching the others eat. When I slowly went towards them, they ducked under the deck. I ended up getting more food and putting it on a tray and sliding the tray underneath the deck.
I’m not sure where they came from, or who dumped them. I stuffed the underside of the deck with enough straw to keep them warm. So what I do know is now they are safe, they are warm, they are fed. I guess you could say they are home. I am naming them, Eenie, Meenie, Miny, and Moe. Sort of unisex names until I figure out who is female and who is male in the group.
I have heard some fighting going on, so suspect one or more is a Tom. The fighting is not severe enough to interfere, just growling, a lot of warnings, but no shrieking or evidence of anybody actually going into battle.
Is it a matter of trapping them? I don’t think you’re able to handle them yet, are you?
All four of them appear to be extremely under-nourished, as well as very skittish. I can catch eye-shine with my flashlight early in the morning when I’m feeding. So far they haven’t made an appearance at the feeding table. I borrowed a friends game camera and set it up to see if they’re coming out late at night to pick up any leftovers. So far all I’m seeing are raccoons and possums.
For right now the plan is we are just going to feed them the best that we can. We will have to make do with what we have. There are four of them and I only have three traps. Hopefully I will be able to gain their trust and capture them without the use of the traps.
Right now with recent holes in the roof of one of the cat enclosures we don’t have any place to put them. We’ve had some pretty strong storms coming through here and my roof is in need of being covered by a tarp before I can use it again fThe only problem is the tarp has to be 40′ x 20′. I don’t have that on hand right now. All my tarps are a lot smaller. So I have water pouring in during the rain. I need to go up to the tire store and see if they have any discarded tires they can give me to toss up on the roof to hold down a tarp or plywood or whatever ultimately will be used. It’s not ideal, but at least we know these kitties will be safe, warm, and loved, even if it is from a distance.
We love black cats, overnight we’ve gone from having six to now 10. We will never turn away cats at our gates no matter what color they are.